Domain Names

Selecting the right domain name is one of the most important foundations to everything your business will do online.

It constitutes your web identity so it’s important that you consider names that are not only suitable for your business, but also easy to remember. Getting the right one will possibly help with your website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and help with promotion.

Not only is it the key to your website, it’s the fundamental building block of your email addresses.

We’ve put together a short list of things to consider when choosing your new domain…

#1. Keep it simple – and obvious!

May seem obvious – but make sure your domain is easy to type – don’t try to be clever as customers will look for the obvious, rather than what’s a clever play with letters.

#2. Shorter the Better!

Never so true as it is with Domain Names. The longer a URL is the greater the risk of mis-typing, mis-spelling, or forgetting completely.

#3. Keyword Relevant

There are many elements that help with your website’s natural search ranking (Search Engine Optimisation – SEO) and one of the building blocks is your domain name.

Ideally you should use Domain Names that are relevant to your business and describe what you do – we’re a little biased – but, whilst not the shortest of domains, verygoodemail.com scores well in this respect.

#4. Is the name extension suitable?

Domain name extensions are suffixes such as .co.uk, .org.uk, .uk, .com, .net etc. at the end of web addresses. Have a careful think about the most suitable for your business, or organisation. What is your target audience and where is it? Do you want to be seen as ‘British’, or global?

Where is your target audience? Global, Regional, National, Local? You may want to consider using a ‘localised’ domain such as tringsofas.co.uk if you sell sofas in and around Tring.

#6. Hyphens and numbers – No!

These can add confusion! If you really must – then it’s probably worth registering variants of the primary domain and have them all point to your homepage.

#7. Is it memorable?

Once you’ve found what you think is the perfect domain – test it out with friends and colleagues. Do they ‘get it’ and is it memorable?

#8. Research…

It’s extremely important to check that the Domain Name you’ve chosen isn’t trademarked, copyrighted or being used by someone else. If you go ahead without checking you may find yourself in an expensive legal minefield.

#9. It’s your name – protect it!

It’s usually good practice to register alternative domains with differing name extensions – and have a think about common mis-spellings of your name and register those.

#10. Do it NOW!

Don’t hang about – if you’ve found your perfect domain – register it! Costs are relatively small and your chosen name could be snapped up by someone else while you are still thinking about it – not good!

If you’re having problems choosing the right name, most Domain Registrars have online tools to help you search keywords and present you with available and suitable domain name suggestions.